January 6th, 2009

Using A LCD Monitor As A TV

After all my initial troubles with my Hanns-G 19″ wide-screen monitor, it was eventually replaced with a standard 19″ monitor). So, I hooked it up to my desktop computer and after a while of using it, I really started getting annoyed with not having the extra width on the monitor. So I decided to use the monitor as a TV.

I first had to go buy a external TV box or a TV card for my PC. I decided to go with the TV box because I wanted it to run without a PC. If I need to use the monitor on my computer, then I can just run it through the external TV box.

The TV box I chose was the KWorld JetBlack Gamers Edition TV Box. It supports up to 1680X1050 high resolution screens with 1080i video input and is compatible with Playstation 2/3 and the Nintendo Wii. If you want it to work with the Xbox, you will have to use the Xbox HD VGA cable. You can also hook it up to a HD DVD play to watch DVD’s in high definition.

Needless to say, the setup is perfect and the TV quality is superb. The other nice thing is that the box comes with all the cables you will need for pretty much any input and output devices and it also comes with a remote control.

I paid about R400 for the TV box (about $40) which I feel is very reasonable. You can get a 22″ wide-screen nowadays for about R2000 and so a full flat screen TV (with high definition gaming) will cost less than R2500. A bargain if you ask me

January 6th, 2009

Seriously Crappy Service From Comstar Technologies

You may have read my post last year about My Hanns-G experience. Unfortunately, things got worse.

Just to recap quickly for those too lazy to read the original post, I bought a 19″ Hanns-G monitor and after a while it started giving me trouble and I took it back to the shop, eventually I got it back from them and it gave the same troubles as before. I sent it in again and they then gave me a “new” monitor. That monitor had a dead pixel and so I sent it back for the third time and that was where the last post ended.

So anyway, week after week I would phone the shop where I bought the monitor and they kept telling me that Comstar Technologies (the company that supplied the Hanns-G monitors to them) are still working on it and I will have a response next week. This went on for about 2 months but in fairness, I cannot blame the shop where I bought it from because it was Comstar Technologies that was being idiots about it all.

After the 2 months of phoning back and forth, I eventually asked for Comstars phone number and for the name of the person who I needed to speak to about my monitor. I phoned this person up (I forget his name) and I got his secretary on the line. She informed me that he would phone me back the following week.

After a week and a half of waiting, I got no phone call back from him. So I phoned again and got through. He told me that unfortunately there was nothing they could do because the monitor only had 1 dead pixel. They only replace the monitors that have more than 5 dead pixels. HUH? I didn’t shell out for a monitor with a freaking dead pixel. After arguing with him for a while, we got no where and so we ended the call.

At this point I was extremely upset and so I phoned the owner of the shop where I bought the monitor. He was extremely understanding and told me he would sort the problem out for me. About a month later he called and let me know that I can come pick up a new monitor at the store (on his own expense as far as I know).

In the end, I am happy that got a working monitor, but extremely disappointed with the service of Comstar Technologies. If you are looking for a computer supplier, stay away from them.

January 5th, 2009

XBox 360 HD VGA AV Cable

I bought myself a new accessory for my latest toy - my XBox 360. Firstly, a while ago I bought a 20inch LCD monitor that I was using with a K-World TV box to view TV in my room. The biggest problem is that the TV box doesn’t support PAL-60 which is required by most xbox games. So when I tried playing games on the TV, the quality sucked and the colors were pretty much all green. Big Fail

So anyway, I browsing around Look and Listen and found this beauty:

Basically with this cable you can connect your Xbox to any LCD or even CRT monitor. You also get to play your games on a high resolution too. The quality is simply AMAZING and looks much better than on a standard TV! If you have a spare monitor laying around, definitely get this cable and start playing on it rather than your TV. It is well worth it!

January 5th, 2009

Why It Sometimes Sucks To Be A Geek!

I tweeted about this earlier today.

It sometimes can really suck to be a geek. Why? Well because everybody you know, including the older grandparent generation (99% of which simply cannot grasp how to use a computer) calls on you when they have a computer problem!

You are the goto guy (or gal) when all computer hell breaks loose. The person who wont let them down, just this one more time. The person who must go out of their way (even on Christmas day) to fix a faulty laptop, or remove a virus from a windows 98 machine, which by the way doesn’t even read a usb stick with the anti-virus software that you need to install on it.

Being the kind hearted geek that you are, you can never say no. Yes, they do sometimes pay you, but way too often it is below minimum wage and other times it is in the form of tea and biscuits.

Oh and when something goes wrong, it is often you that takes the blame. Geek X didn’t install this and thats why I got the virus. Hey, most of the time the “viruses” are actually their inability to use the computer. How often have you heard “I can’t do x, I think I have a virus”… *sigh*

This my fellow geek is why it can sometimes suck to be you.

January 5th, 2009

How To Get XBox Live Subscription Codes

The first thing I wanted to do when I got my XBox was sign up for XBox live. To my dismay, because I live in South Africa I could not sign up. There are very few countries in which you can actually sign up to play on XBox live. I was really disappointed but I knew that people in South Africa and many other countries were playing on live and so I went to Google to find out how they do it.

Turns out, that anybody in any country can play on XBox live! All you have to do is get your hands on a prepaid subscription code which you can then use to redeem a gold subscription for your account. Unfortunately it isn’t free and you will have to buy a monthly or yearly gold subscription.

There are a few place where you can buy the prepaid XBox live subscription codes. They are:

• MicrosoftPointsXBox.com - for USA point cards and gold subscription cards
• DefinitePlay - For UK point cards and prepaid gold subscriptions

The gold cards work world wide and you can purchase them with paypal (for the US points and cards), credit card or Google checkout. I purchased a 1 month gold subscription to test it out from the USA website and once the payment was completed with paypal, the code arrived immediately and it worked without any problem.

January 5th, 2009

My Xbox 360

I have wanted a Xbox 360 for a long time (since playing halo 1 on the original Xbox during my time in America) and this Christmas my mom and sister (with Meggs help!) got me one. What an awesome toy it is!

The model they bought me is the 360 arcade version which comes with the console, a 256 memory card, one wireless controller and a 5 in 1 games disc. The first thing I did was go out and buy halo 3 and order a XBox live subscription.

I have been playing online for a while now and it is so much fun! All I need now is a headset so I can talk smack with the guys I play against

January 4th, 2009

SonyEricsson K800i Review

This is a post/review that I wanted to get out a LONG time ago. I used the SonyEricsson K800i for about a year (recently upgraded my phone contract and I now have the Nokia E71) and it was definitely one of the best phones (looks and feature wise) that I have owned.

More pictures at GSM-Arena.

The K800i Specs

Here are the basic specs of the K800i:

Dimensions: 105 x 47 x 22 mm
Screen Size: 240 x 320 pixels
Memory Card: Memory Stick Micro (M2)
USB: Yes (2.0)
3G: Yep! (384kbps)
Wlan: No
Camera: 3.15mp
MP3: Yes

For more details on the phone, visit GSM-Arena.

The Good

• Camera: The camera on the SonyEricsson K800i is nothing short of amazing. The picture quality is superb even when taking photos during the night time. There really is no comparison of the K800i camera to most other built in cell phone cameras. The phone also has a built in xenon flash which is the same flash technology used in most personal cameras on the market today. The K800i also lets you automatically blog your photos to a photo blog powered by blogger.
• Web Browsing: The built in web browser on the K800i is actually not too bad. There are two views for browsing which are landscape and portrait and you can save bookmarks and there is even a basic zoom. I always recommend using Opera Mini for browsing on a cell phone (which works well on the K800i) but the default K800i browser is not bad at all.
• Video Calling: The K800i has a second camera (VGA) built onto the front of the phone which is specifically for video calling. I did a few video calls with the phone and as long as your network signal is strong, it works very well. The video and sound are very clear on the phone during video calls.
• Battery Life: The thing that impressed me the most about this phone was how quickly it took to charge it and how long that charge actually lasted. GSM-Arena says it gets 7 hours talk time which by todays standards is not much but my experience was a bit different. I seemed to only have to charge the phone every 3-5 days which is the least amount of charge time out of the many phones that I have owned.

The Not So Good

• Joystick: For some reason every SonyEricsson I have owned has had a joystick that after about 6 months of using it, gets sticky and horrible to use. For this reason, I will never by a SonyEricsson that has a joystick on it again, I would prefer a standard up, down, left, right button combo.
• Memory Card: The K800i comes with an external card slot for a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card. As far as I know, all SonyEricssons only support Memory Stick Micro cards. The only problem I have with the Memory Stick Micro cards that is they are hellishly more expensive than the standard micro SD cards that a lot of other phones offer.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I was extremely happy with this phone for the year or so that I used it. The camera was brilliant, web browsing was good and the phone never gave me any real trouble over the time that I had it. If you are considering buying it, I would so go for it (I would actually recommend you check out the new cybershot range).

January 4th, 2009

Nokia E71 Review

I was recently able to upgrade my cell phone contract and choose a new phone. There were so many to choose from and I sure as heck did my research to find which one would best suit my needs. I had a few requirements that the phone had to have or it was a no deal. They were: Full keyboard, GPS, 3mp+ camera, wifi. I searched long and hard and two phones stuck out. The first was the Nokia N78 and the other was the WAY more expensive Nokia E71. I went with the E71 and am very glad I did.

More pictures available on GSM-Arena

The Nokia E71 Specs

Dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm
Screen Size: 320 x 240 pixels
Memory Card: Micro SD
USB: Yep! (2.0)
3G: Yep! (HSDPA 3.6 Mbps)
Wlan: Yep!

You can read the full specs on the GSM-Arena website.

The Good

• Everything! Ok, I will go into more detail…
• Full keyboard: The keyboard makes typing messages and browsing the internet very easy. Read below for notes about the keys though.
• GPS Navigation: Wow is all I can say about the GPS navigation on the E71. I have used it countless times and along with Nokia maps it will take you anywhere. It is extremely accurate too. It really is just like any other GPS on the shelves. See below for things I don’t like about the GPS.
• WIFI and internet connectivity: Accessing the internet is a breeze. There are multiple ways to access the internet and it is extremely fast with WIFI and a 3.6 Mbps HSDPA connection.
• App Downloads: There is a app download section where you can download a ton of different apps. One of my favorites at the moment is JoikuSpot which pretty much turns your cell phone into a wireless router.
• Office tools: The phone comes with a bunch of office tools which is useful for opening documents, spreadsheets etc. It even comes with a adobe acrobat and a zip tool.
• The small things: I love all the small things too such as the calendar, IP Phone support etc. All useful little tools

The Not So Good

• Keys are a bit small: I am starting to get used to them, but my fingers are a little big for them. My girlfriend has the same phone and she has no problem with the keys cause her fingers are smaller.
• Software is extremely buggy: I have run into a few software bugs with the phone such as when I set my my home screen wallpaper, it keeps getting replaced with the default wallpaper. My unfortunate girlfriend has had even more bugs with her E71 phone ranging from installing software on it to keys being in the wrong place.
• GPS Data: The GPS uses the internet to get data. This kinda sucks because when you have no reception, you cant search for address etc.
• GPS Maps Subscription: This is more specific to South Africa I think, but the E71 only comes with 1 year free maps and it expires after a year which means at the end of this year, I am going to have to purchase another years subscription of the maps software
• Camera: I think that with every phone I get from now on I will be disappointed by the camera because of how good my camera on the SonyEricsson K800i was. Don’t even try take a photo at night with the E71. During the day the photos come out fairly decent though.

Final Thoughts

I am extremely happy with this phone. It has everything I wanted in a phone with limited flaws that I can deal with. I can definitely see myself using it for at least the next year and will definitely recommend it to anybody looking for a “smart” phone.

January 4th, 2009

Opera Mini - A Kick Ass Mobile Browser

If you haven’t got opera mini on your cell phone yet, then go get it now. They say dynamite comes in small packages, and it is never more true than with this awesome little cell phone web browser. I have been browsing with it for the past few months on various different phones and it really has made viewing sites much easier.

Why Opera Mini?

• Renders mobile sites and websites perfectly.
• Save your webpages and read them later! I love this feature. With my nokia e71 I can access a bunch of websites through wifi at home and then read them while I am on the go.
• Zooming. Some cell phones support zooming by standard while others dont. With Opera Mini zooming comes standard. It is very handy to zoom in and out of large web pages which don’t have a mobile version.
• Bookmarks. Opera mini has a very cool bookmarking tool which makes accessing your favorite websites as easy as a few clicks.
• And many more reasons that you can read on the Opera mini website.

Definitely get the Opera mini browser for your phone! The mobile web is just starting to take off and you will soon start seeing more and more of your favorite websites/companies/apps building mobile versions of their site or product. Hey, it’s also completely free and you don’t get better than that

January 4th, 2009

5 Awesome Firefox Tab Addons

I am a big fan of tabbed browsing and today I decided to see how I can become even more browser efficient by using firefox tab addons. So I searched for tab addons in the official firefox addon directory and found 5 that I really like and am now using.

Addon 1: Aging Tabs

This plugin basically tracks your tab activity and the more you use a tab, the more “active” it will be. Activity is defined by color. The less active tabs are darker, while the more active tabs are light and thus appear more active. You can also define your tab settings such as color, text color and even a custom aging color. Another cool feature is the ability to define how the addon determines more or less activity in a tab. You can use time, the amount of times you switch between tabs or when the URL changes in the tab . This is a very cool plugin and definitely worth installing.

(Click image to enlarge)

Addon 2: FaviconizeTab

FaviconizeTab is a cool little plugin that is probably my favorite of them all. It simple lets you display the favicon in the tab instead of the favicon and website title which helps save some space.

Addon 3: Tabs Menu

This plugins adds a “Tabs” menu to your menu bar. It is quite useful in that it lists all your open tabs with the favicon and full title of the website in the tab. If you have a ton of tabs open, it really makes browsing them and finding the right tab a breeze.

Addon 4: Undo Closed Tabs

Undo Closed Tabs is another one of my favorites. It gives you a “undo” button which you can click to open the last tab that you closed. Not only that, next to the button is a little drop down arrow, which you can press to open any of your recently closed tabs. Obviously you can do the above with the “History” menu, but this plugin provides a nice, neat and quick way of doing it.

Addon 5: Find In Tabs

I haven’t yet exploited this plugin yet, but I can definitely see its uses. What this does is adds the option to find text in all your tabs, rather then just the current one. It opens a neat little box when you click “Find In Tabs” which displays your search results and helps you navigate between the different results.

(Click image to enlarge)

Addon 6: Not Available Yet!

There is one addon that I really really want but couldn’t find. That is a decent tab grouping addon. The closest I could find to what I want is this one. That plugin is no longer supported though and can only be installed on firefox 3 by forcing it to install. So I decided not to use it. I also checked out Group/Sort Tabs, but it isnt what I was looking for.

So, check out those 5 plugins above if you haven’t already and I am sure they will improve your firefox tab browsing experience.